Popular smoking articles, such as cigarettes, have a substantially cylindrical rod shaped structure and include a charge, roll or column of smokable material, such as shredded tobacco (e.g., in cut filler form), surrounded by a paper wrapper, thereby forming a so-called “smokable rod” or “tobacco rod.” Normally, a cigarette has a cylindrical filter element aligned in an end-to-end relationship with the tobacco rod. Typically, a filter element comprises plasticized cellulose acetate tow circumscribed by a paper material known as “plug wrap.” Certain filter elements can incorporate polyhydric alcohols. Typically, the filter element is attached to one end of the tobacco rod using a circumscribing wrapping material known as “tipping paper.” It also has become desirable to perforate the tipping material and plug wrap, in order to provide dilution of drawn mainstream smoke with ambient air. Descriptions of cigarettes and the various components thereof are set forth in Tobacco Production, Chemistry and Technology, Davis et al. (Eds.) (1999). A cigarette is employed by a smoker by lighting one end thereof and burning the tobacco rod. The smoker then receives mainstream smoke into his/her mouth by drawing on the opposite end (e.g., the filter end) of the cigarette.
Certain cigarettes incorporate filter elements incorporating activated carbon or charcoal materials. For example, an exemplary cigarette filter can possess multiple segments, and at least one of those segments can comprise particles of high carbon-content materials. Various types of filters incorporating charcoal particles or activated carbon types of materials are set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 2,881,770 to Touey; U.S. Pat. No. 3,101,723 to Seligman et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,236,244 to Irby et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,311,519 to Touey et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,347,247 to Lloyd; U.S. Pat. No. 3,349,780 to Sublett et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,370,595 to Davis et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,413,982 to Sublett et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 3,602,231 to Dock; U.S. Pat. No. 3,972,335 to Tigglebeck et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,023 to Blakley et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,537,186 to Veluz; U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/226,932 to Coleman, III et al.; and PCT WO 2006/064371 to Banerjea et al. and PCT WO 2006/051422 to Jupe et al.; which are incorporated herein by reference.
It would be highly desirable to provide a cigarette possessing a filter element incorporating a carbonaceous material, such as particles of activated carbon; which filter element (i) incorporates a filter material and other filter component materials, (ii) possesses the ability to efficiently remove effective amounts of various gas phase components of mainstream tobacco smoke passing through that filter element, and (iii) possesses the ability to efficiently provide desired sensory characteristics to mainstream tobacco smoke passing through that filter element.